Taking 16-mo twins to Brazil

T

TwinsOnTheRoad

Guest
My family are going to Brazil for 5 months in the fall. We have twins who will be 16 mo when we leave, around 22lb. We will be living in the middle of a large city and do not expect to use cars to get around very often. However, we may need to use taxis or private vehicles on occasion. I don't know what to expect in terms of restraints in cars there- may or may not have seat belts with shoulder harness in the back seat, I'm assuming no LATCH-type anchors.

Clearly, I'm going to have to do the best I can with any given situation, but I need to plan what to take with us. Given that we have twins, we already have a mountain of stuff to pack. I'm hoping for some realistic advice here about the logistics of getting around with two toddlers in a foreign country, trying to install car seats in unfamiliar vehicles, and what sort of "less than ideal but far better than nothing" options might be out there.

Thank for the help with a challenging situation.
 
ADS
U

Unregistered

Guest
We will be living in Recife, we have rented an apartment that is centrally located
 

1mommy

New member
Maybe 2 combi coccoro's? light weight, can use European belt routing, and has lock off's. I have heard it can be a pain to install in certain cars tho, no personal experience.
 

mom2juliarose

New member
Ok based on location and the use of taxis or private cars (DH is from Porto Alegre, so I figured knowing the city would help), I'd plan on the cars only having lap belts. If you get anything better than that, great!

I'm hoping someone can chime in here about lightweight seats that are fairly easy to install with a lap belt and wouldn't need a noodle or anything fancy to install. Will you be bringing the car seats on your flight? We've done Los Angeles to Porto Alegre a handful of times and I couldn't have survived without having the seats on board.
 

jwilliams

New member
I would consider two Cosco Scenera NEXTs, used RF. No pool noodle needed because they can be installed as upright as you want/need for kids who can sit up. They're light, cheap, not too big, and circumvent the lap belt only/no top tether problems. You will just need to practice using a locking clip!
 

lgenne

New member
Be aware that the Scenera NEXT does not come with a locking clip, so you'll need to grab a couple off of other car seats before you go if you get them.
 

safeinthecar

Moderator - CPS Technician
What car seats do you have now?

Most car seats are easy to install with a lap only belt as long as the belt has some sort of locking mechanism. The retracting kind of lap belt that only locks if you hit the brakes hard will need a Belt-Shortening-Clip, which is tricky to learn but not all that hard to actually use once you know how. Since you will have a variety of vehicles, it's really important that you know how to identify and use the different types of belt systems. I don't know how the used car market in Recife compares price-wise to the cost of public transit,taxis, and private cars, but if it were me, I'd be looking into whether it would make more sense financially and logistically to buy a car, use it for the 5 months you are there, then resell it. (If it was Brasilia I could ask for you, but inland is probably pretty different from the coast)
 

mamah

New member
I agree that two scenera nexts would be a good choice. We use press l ours all the time in or second car for our 23 month old. It's great.
 
U

Unregistered

Guest
Thanks for all the tips! We will definitely educate ourselves about these locking clips.

We currently have two Chicco Nextfits, which are huge and heavy. If I could do it over I would have gotten something smaller- we can't really use the middle seat with two of them installed in our VW Jetta. Wish I had found this site earlier!

We hadn't really looked into buying a car, I figured it would be hard to get licensed for such a short time. But renting may be an option worth looking into.
 

safeinthecar

Moderator - CPS Technician
Thanks for all the tips! We will definitely educate ourselves about these locking clips.

We currently have two Chicco Nextfits, which are huge and heavy. If I could do it over I would have gotten something smaller- we can't really use the middle seat with two of them installed in our VW Jetta. Wish I had found this site earlier!

We hadn't really looked into buying a car, I figured it would be hard to get licensed for such a short time. But renting may be an option worth looking into.

Brazil allows you to drive on another country's license for up to 6 months.
 

mom2juliarose

New member
Brazil allows you to drive on another country's license for up to 6 months.

:yeahthatlove:

You can also try breaking up the rental. For example, when we've gone, we have rented a car just on the weekends, or just for like Wednesday and Thursday, and then relied on the buses and walking the other days.
 
U

Unregistered

Guest
That's really good to know about the license, and I like this idea about short rentals for excursions. That would suit our needs really well- glad to know its so easy to do!
 

lovemybabybug

New member
I am originally from Brazil, go back with my kiddo often and have had my fair share of car seat of shenanigans out there. All center seatbelts are lap only, even in newer cars ( my uncle has a brand spanking new 2015 sonata with freaking lap belt only in the center). Also, outboard lap/shoulder belts do not lock, so like others have said, make sure you get good at installing with a locking clip. I ended up giving up on the scenera after the first year I took one there, because we moved cars daily and after the 5th time doing it with with the locking clips, it made me hate car seats so much ( and break a few nails in the process). I ended up buying a Britax Marathon Classic with built in lock offs the next year we went aqnd it was the best thing I ever did! Also most cars there are SMALL! Think VW Golf small! I would take coccoros if at all possible since they are so small and will fit in in tight spaces, and they come with that nice and easy lock offs! If you will be riding in different cars and will move the seats often I HIGHLY recommend taking seats with built in lock offs. I wanted to cry every time I had to move the scenera during the 35 days we used it while we were there, I cannot imagine doing it for 5 months and with two seats, specially if you will be taking cabs. Feel free to ask any specific questions!
 

unityco

Ambassador - CPS Technician
Maybe look into car-sharing services like zipcar or car-2-go too. I'm not sure either of those companies operate in Brazil, but there may be others that do. :)
 

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